


Lawsuits and Leahy

by AshwinMeird



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 5 + 1 Things, ASL, Alternate Universe, Awesome Eileen, Background Destiel, Detective Eileen, Developing Relationships, Established Castiel/Dean Winchester, F/M, Foster Parents Castiel/Dean, Lawsuits, Lawyer Sam, M/M, Oblivious Sam, POV Sam Winchester, Sam Likes Eileen, romancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28062486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshwinMeird/pseuds/AshwinMeird
Summary: Sam Winchester has been an associate with Barnes & Moseley for two years when Eileen Leahy steps into his office.  After a few months he realizes that he doesn't want her gone after the case is over.orFive times Sam tries to impress Eileen and one time she impresses him.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Comments: 8
Kudos: 50





	Lawsuits and Leahy

**Author's Note:**

> There is ASL in this fic; just as a prewarning I do not know any one who is deaf, nor have I ever learned ASL, so all I have is from the internet. But I did my best.

**1**

When Sam graduated from Stanford with his shiny new degree (as Dean continually referred to it) he started work immediately at Barnes & Moseley. He was a summer associate there since his first year of Law School and he barely needed to ask before they offered him a job.

Now he was a second year associate and worked closely with Linda Tran, the terrifying Senior Partner that took him under her wing when he first arrived.

Linda called him early that morning to make sure Sam was ready for a new client who, along with several others, was suing the owner of a nursery home, Lance Parker, for diverting money meant to improve said home.

When Sam arrived at the conference room he was greeted by Linda and introduced to Mildred Baker, the plaintiff and a kind looking white haired woman, and Eileen Leahy, who was there with Mildred.

The case, as explained to Sam, is being led by Mildred who has been receiving sub-par care from the home due to a lack of funding. But the funding had been recorded by the home for improvements in the accounting.

“How do we know where the money’s going?” Sam asked looking up after quickly scanning the report Linda gave him.

Linda believed in letting Sam do as much as he could on his own in order to learn, so it was Eileen who answered instead. “I tracked it, the money is going to a subsidiary account of the home, but not to the home itself.”

Sam considered Eileen for a moment, she was very good looking and she spoke with a confidence Sam rarely received from clients.

“How did you do that?” After a moment Sam elaborated, “Track it, I mean.”

Eileen bristled slightly, but answered, “I’m a detective, I had a work friend look into the records. Oak Park is government owned so most of the books are public record and I had a friend in the precinct audit them.”

She was smart and resourceful as well. She continued to stare him down as if he would dare question her on the matter.

“Great,” Sam smiled, “We can just go over a few more things and then we can get started.”

The rest of the meeting continued in an orderly fashion. Sam had Mildred sign Barnes & Moseley on as her official representation and several preliminary papers to start the processing of the case.

Once everything was done Linda led Mildred out of the room and Sam tapped Eileen on the arm in a request for her to hold back for a moment. She stayed, but her posture was guarded and she looked at him wearily.

“I, uh,” Sam tried. “You said you were a detective?” Eileen nodded hestiently, “Wow that’s really impressive.”

She changed after that, but Sam’s quite unobservant and was too busy being awed by the girl in front of him to notice. Eileen tightened her jaw and crossed her arms before stating, “Just because i am deaf doesn’t make me unable to be a cop, I do my job just as well as any competent hearing person.”

“Um,” Sam was taken aback before he amended, “No, no, that’s not what I was saying. It was a compliment. Your birthdate was on one of the files; I was just really impressed that you made detective by twenty five, not a lot of people do that.”

Eileen still looked skeptical. “Is that all then?”

Sam nodded and she left the room with the same confidence she had done everything else. He felt a pang of regret that she felt like he was insulting her, Sam really had been impressed that she was a detective when she was two years younger than Sam himself.

He had, of course, realized that she was most likely hearing impaired due to the sign language used between her and Mildred and the lack of inflictions and slight mispronunciations in her voice, but to be deaf and a police officer? That did impress Sam because there were a lot of people who would not have taken as difficult a career path like she did and succeeded like Eileen had.

He needed to make it up to her.

**2**

“Charlie I need a favor.” Sam approached the girl in the IT Department that he had considered a close friend until Dean and her met and now she was apparently his adoptive sister.

She side-eyed him over one of her computer monitors. “I’m not going to that museum with you, ask someone else.”

Sam rolled his eyes with an unnecessary amount of dramatics; he had been trying to get someone to accompany him to the opening of the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum ever since he had moved back to Lawrence after Law School. He also refused to go alone, but Dean and Cas had been too busy since they started fostering, Charlie was working IT, LARPing and several other things Sam didn’t question, and he really had no other friends in the area except fellow associates and they spent their precious off hours doing whatever it is they like to do.

“No,” Sam sighed, “It’s not about that.”

Charlie finally looked away from her computer and smirked at him. “Then what’s got you coming all the way down here to beg for my assistance?”

“Charlie this building has eight floors and you’re on the sixth, I’d hardly call that ‘way down’.”

She leaned back in her office chair and gave Sam the same look she gave before giving out orders as the Queen of Moondoor. “It isn’t nice to insult those you request favors of, Samuel,” She said in a condescending tone, “Now what is that you wish for me to aid you with?”

Sam would have given her props for maintaining her role of Queen in the middle of the office if she hadn’t laughed right after she stopped speaking.

He laughed with her for a moment before saying, “It’s about that new case Linda and I have-”

“Baker vs. Oak Park Retirement Living? That shouldn’t need tech work until you’ve at least finished filing the first motions.”

“No, um, actually it is about that case, but,” Charlie made a face at him so he forced himself to express his thoughts in a distinguishable form. “It’s about the girl that came in with Mildred, her name is Eileen.”

Sam felt himself flush when Charlie sat up in her seat with a malicious grin on her face. “Eileen, huh? Does Sammy have something to share with the class about her?” Charlie asked teasingly.

“No.” He stated firmly. “I just, I’m pretty sure I inadvertently insulted her at the meeting a few days ago and I wanted to make up for it.”

Charlie was still grinning broadly at him, but agreed to help anyways.

~~~~~~~~~

Mildred’s deposition was the first of many for the case. Parker’s lawyer seemed to realize that the case was going to be a slam dunk, but he still asked all of the standard preliminary questions.

Things got heavy near the end when the lawyer started to ask about Mildred’s heart condition and lack of family members to take care of her in her old age. Linda ended the deposition because Sam lacked the authority to do so and she helped escort both Parker and the lawyer out of the office.

Sam tries to say something to Eileen before Mildred interrupts and says she’ll wait outside and exits the room. Eileen was looking after Mildred so Sam lightly waved a hand in her eyeline to get her attention.

She had a tense look about her when she asked, “Did you need something from me?”

“No, actually” Sam took a deep breath, “I just wanted to apologize for our last interaction.”

“It’s fine, you didn’t mean it.” Eileen looked away for a moment before continuing, “I just had a predetermined idea that someone in your position would think less of me for my disability, but you weren’t, so it’s no big deal.”

“Well I still feel awful, so I got you this,” He handed her a small pastry box, “And my brother says the best way to apologize is to give someone dessert. He would be opposed to the flavoring, but I may have had a friend ask Mildred what kind was your favorite.”

That honestly sounded so stalker-ish when he said it, but Mildred and Charlie both said he was just trying to do a nice thing to make up for something he did not to get in her pants (Charlie’s words, not Mildred’s).

Eileen opened the box. “Is this cinnamon pie?” Sam nodded and she gave him a sly smile. “Do you do this for all of your clients, Sam?”

“Um, I- uh, it’s just,” He took a breath, “Just a peace offering, because we’ll be working together for the next little while.”

She smiled at that, before saying, “Then consider your peace offering accepted.”

**3**

Sam saw Eileen several more times after that; she accompanied Mildred to all of the client meetings the woman had to attend. Eileen and him were on friendly terms now, but after almost two months, Sam was getting to be interested in her in a more romantic way.

He ignored that though, she was still technically a client and Sam didn’t want to get involved with clients. But it still wouldn’t hurt for him to do something nice for her and Mildred, right?

The day and night before the deposition of Lance Parker, Sam was with Charlie trying to find any information that could be used against the man to prove he used funds for personal gain.

The man was good though, he made it almost undetectable that the money never made it to the nursing home like it was intended. He made it just as, if not more, difficult to find where he was putting it without Charlie delving into the less legal methods of tracing it, until she decoded several large interactions to a woman named Evelin Morgens.

~~~~~~~~~~

The first part of Parker’s deposition was uneventful, mostly establishing who he is and what he does at the owner of the company. Then Linda grills him on if he took the money, which he completely denies, and she hands the reins over to Sam.

“You’re letting your associate ask the questions now, would you like for me to get my wife to answer them?” Parker jousts, to which his lawyer shushes him.

“I see no reason for you not to take his questions, if he’s no threat,” Linda snided back.

“Your wife, her name is Abbie Parker, right?” Parker nodded with a confused expression on his face, “And Evelin Morgens, that’s your mistress, correct?”

That time Parker didn’t respond with anything but a controlled look of fear on his face. His lawyer asked why that was relevant and all Sam had to do was slide the report detailing all of the expensive trips she bought the two of them off of her ‘teacher’s salary’ before the two men across the table ended the deposition.

This time it was Eileen, who was permitted to witness the hearing to help Mildred face the man who had broken her trust, asked Sam to stay behind after Linda and Mildred exited.

“When did you find out about that, my friend and I couldn’t actually trace the money to him, we just knew he was responsible?”

Sam looked down out of embarrassment before looking back to her to speak, “Last night, me and my sister, we were here late trying to find out how he was using the money. She’s really good with computers and stuff so we found out about the other woman pretty easily.”

Eileen smiled at him. “Thank you, this means a lot to us- to her- for you to help save her home of the past five years.”

Right, this was all about Midred and the other residents and staff of the Retirement Center. Sam forced himself to remember that while he watched the amazing woman in front of him pull her thin coat back on.

“It’s not a big deal,” He said quietly, but not in such a way that it would affect her ability to read his lips.

“It is to me,” She responded firmly, “You’re a good man, Sam.” 

She turned to leave after that and Sam knew he was in trouble. She was kind, smart, and confident, she was just the kind of person Sam always wished he could end up with.

**4**

Dean and Cas’ house was pretty big, but they did live a good ways away from the actual city of Lawrence so larger houses weren't uncommon. Both the Impala and Castiel’s ‘Pimpmobile’ were in the two car garage, because no matter how much Dean disliked it, he still took care of his husband’s car.

Sam parked in the driveway before letting himself into the house; he had been threatened for knocking before because it woke a sleeping child.

No one was in the house when Sam slipped inside, so he pulled off his coat and shoes and walked to the living room.

The living room where Dean was sitting cross legged on the floor about four feet from their newest foster Jack, who was mirroring him.

Before Sam could interrupt… that, a sudden voice beside him said, “Hello, Sam.”

He jumped before turning towards his brother-in-law. “Jesus, Cas,” Sam hissed, “You need to stop sneaking up on people.”

Cas rolled his eyes at Sam, who was briefly annoyed at his brother for corrupting who Sam assumes to have been a perfectly good human when he met Cas, before the other man pulled him into the kitchen.

“I apologize for startling you Sam,” Cas spoke monotonously, “But I couldn’t let you interrupt Dean and Jack.”

“And what exactly is it that I would have interrupted?”

“Any time we bring in a new foster child, we are required to bond with them. That is, we have to part take in an activity they associate with good things in order for them to begin to trust us,” Cas explained.

“And Jack chose,” Sam briefly glanced back at the wall between the kitchen and living room, “A staring contest?”

“Jack feels that is the best way to understand someone; to look into their eyes.” Cas motioned for Sam to sit at the island. “I understand where he is coming from very well, but Dean insisted that he bonded with Jack first because Jack was more preferential towards me when he first arrived.”

From the bar chair Sam watched Cas lean against the sink. “And how long have they been doing that?”

“Almost an hour I believe,” Cas paused for a moment, “Yes it was about that long ago when I took Emma out to the garden.”

Cas and Dean have had many foster kids through their doors since they started the process, but Sam could see them actually looking into properly adopting one of the three currently in their care. Especially Claire, the almost sixteen year old that moved in with them two years prior.

“Now Sam,” Cas cut in suddenly, “I presume you had a purpose to being here on a workday, you normally only have the time on weekends.”

And that just reminded Sam that he should probably stop living in her cubicle five days a week, but Senior Associate was right around the corner from him and he would be able to cut back a little after he wasn’t constantly competing against a dozen other Junior Associates.

Sam sighed. “It’s about this case. Well not really about the case I guess, see, it’s about this girl… And I- it’s just she’s really nice and I’m trying not to get involved with a client, but she’s not really a client,” Sam paused him blabbering, trying to remember how to string together actual words.

“This is about the detective friend of your plaintiff on the Baker vs. Oak Parks case,” Cas suggested.

Sam gaped at him. “How the- how did you?”

Cas gave him a blank look before stating, “You told this to Charlie several weeks ago, and Kevin is here a couple times a week for tutoring. Did you really expect us not to know?”

“Linda knows?” Sam froze, eyes wide. His boss knew he had been crushing on a pseudo-client; that was bound to work out for him terribly.

“I believe that Kevin said there is a bet going around the firm,” Cas elaborated.

Sam flushed as he buried his face in his hands. After a moment he resurfaced to say, “Since I’m not going to get in shit for this, how do I actually do something about it? I mean, I don’t even think she likes me as a friend.”

“I believe, from what Charlie has told us, that Eileen may be interested in you back, but you are lacking something to move you from affiliates to something more personal.”

Sam sighed and looked at him earnestly. “And how would I do that?” He asked.

“You should remove the work relationship from your interactions, that is the simplest way to create a more personal bond with someone.” The way Cas said it made Sam think it was from personal experience; Cas had, in fact, met Dean when the elder Winchester injured himself at Bobby’s almost a decade ago and went to the hospital Cas had just started nursing at.

They refused to tell anyone exactly what happened for the two weeks Dean was stuck in the hospital, but something changed when they ran into each other when Cas’ car broke down on the side of the road and Dean helped fix it.

“So do I just walk aimlessly around Lawrence hoping to run into her on the street?” Sam snarked, because he was a touch annoyed that this conversation was getting him nowhere.

Cas rolled his eyes, again, before continuing, “She volunteers at Oak Park, she will be there most often during BINGO nights, where it is free for members of the public to also volunteer.” He gave Sam a very pointed look.

Sam internally facepalmed. Right, the nursing home where Eileen met Mildred _and_ where Cas volunteers a couple times a month.

“You know Eileen,” Sam supplied dumbly.

“Yes, but she stopped speaking to me about the handsome lawyer she met when she realized we share a last name; Mildred has not, however.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

BINGO Night at Oak Park was simultaneously much more intense and chill than Sam had imagined it. As far as he could tell all of the volunteers that were assisting the elderly seemed to be quite competitive on behalf of their resident.

He didn’t see Eileen for most of the first hour, instead Sam got to try and help a man named Rufus who insisted he didn’t need to be in the home and that he was only there because of a bum knee.

The twenty minute rant about ‘Nam and that shit’ on top of the stern looking nurse giving him a pill with some water, however, gave Sam other ideas.

With about twenty minutes until BINGO ended, Claire came over to let him know that Eileen was entering the room. She was volunteering that night instead of Cas because of bursary hours, but Sam pretended not to see her happily helping out two older women for most of the night.

“Sam?” Asked a surprised voice behind him.

He turned to see Eileen eying him warily. “Hey,” He responded, feeling his cheeks redden.

She took a moment to watch him before asking why he was there. Sam figited under her gaze as he explained that his brother-in-law usually volunteers but Sam offered to take Claire that evening.

Sam could tell that Eileen was trying to suppress a smile and he was feeling all giddy inside, until an unimpressed looking Rufus tapped her on the arm.

She smirked as Sam. “I supposed I should let you get back to your game,” She ducked her head for a moment and Sam thinks he might have seen her cheeks flush, “I hope to see you around here again some time.”

After that Sam said his goodbyes to her and turned back to Rufus, who continued to rib him about fancying the pretty nurse, even though Eileen wasn’t, in fact, a nurse.

**5**

Sam was sitting in his brother’s kitchen when Dean finally arrived home from a trip out with Claire. Cas was out in the garden with Emma again and Jack was upstairs playing an educational game that he picked out at the store like your average nine year old.

He watched the Impala pull into the driveway but something was off, Dean was adept enough at driving that he usually pulled into places fast and sharp. But today the car moved carefully and at a much slower pace.

There was a coffee on the island in front of Sam and had he been drinking it, it would have smashed on the floor.

Sam watched as Dean stepped out of the passenger side of his car and sure enough, Claire’s blonde head appeared over the car a moment after. The girl rounded the car to hug Dean once more before all but sprinting around the side of the house.

“Dude you let her drive your car?” Sam demanded when Dean finally made his way into the kitchen.

Dean raised an eyebrow at him before leaning against the counter across from Sam. “She’s getting her learner’s permit tomorrow, how else was I supposed to teach her?”

“Damn, I never thought I’d see the day you let one of your foster kids drive Baby,” Sam said, attempting to take a drink of his coffee to calm down.

“Well not really my foster kid, per say,” Dean responded, handing Sam a piece of paper he had brought in from the car.

He raised an eyebrow at his brother before looking at the paper. In large bold lettering the name ‘Kansas State Adoption Agency’ was written and below that-

“‘Claire Winchester’?” Sam gaped at his brother, “You’re adopting her? Is that what she was so excited about?”

Dean was full on beaming in a way Sam had only seen a few times; when Sam graduated, when Sam moved back to Lawrence, when he got engaged to Cas, when he and Cas got married, when they got their first foster kid.

And now, adopting their first kid.

“Dude, this is great. I’m happy for you.”

They talked through the process a little; they had used the same lawyer that they’ve had since starting fostering when Sam was in law school and decided to only tell people after it happened.

Finally Dean asked Sam the million dollar question: “You need anything Sammy, or are you just here to chat?”

“I want to ask Eileen out-”

“Finally,” Dean interrupted, sipping on a coffee of his own.

Sam sent him a patented Bitch Face, before continuing, “And I found out the perfect way to do it.”

“I’ve heard a lot about her from Cas,” Dean warned, “She doesn’t seem the type to want some fancy prom-posal shit.”

“No, she definitely doesn’t want that,” Sam agreed, “But I still want her to like it. Do you remember Lia?”

Dean gave him a dumbfounded look. “I raised her for a year, of course I fucking remember her.”

Lia was a seven year old girl that came to live with Cas and Dean after her parents died in a car crash. The same crash that took her hearing.

“Well I need you to help learn how to ask Eileen out.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sam didn’t get nervous, okay? He went to freaking law school, he aced it too, so this should not freak him out. But it was.

He and Eileen met almost four months ago now and in that time he has found her to be amazing, funny, kind, and everything else under the freaking sun. So he was allowed to be scared that someone like her wouldn’t want to go on a date with some boring lawyer-type like Sam.

But he also knew that everyone, Dean, Cas, Charlie, even Mildred, said she would be happy to say yes.

Lance Parker agreed to a settlement and his investors bought him out of the company, so after he was in to sign the paperwork Eileen would be done of the case.

Parker was annoyed and his lawyer was bitchy over miniscule details in the paperwork but they signed nevertheless. The two men left leaving just Linda, Mildred, Eileen and Sam in the room. There were a few moments of awkward tension after Mildred thanked the two of them before Linda, not for the first time, asked if she would like some tea.

Once it was just Sam and Eileen in the conference room, Sam worked the courage up to say something.

He stepped around the table and tapped her on the shoulder. Eileen turned and focused her attention on Sam’s lips, waiting for him to speak. Instead Sam made a small palm down wave of his hand at the wrist.

She raised an eyebrow and repeated the ASL greeting back at him.

Sam pointed at her (you), he opened his hands palm up and brought them closer ending in a ‘claw’ shape (want), he pointed his two index fingers upwards and then off to the side (go), he made two ‘d’ letter signs and brought them together twice (date), and lastly Sam pointed at himself and raised his eyebrows (me; with a yes or no question implication).

Eileen had her hands covering her mouth in what Sam could only hope was surprise. Shakily she nodded her head and took her right hand in a fist at shoulder height, bobbing it in time with the nod (yes).

**+1**

Their first date was amazing, Sam had taken her on a long walk through a beautiful park, most of their speaking had been done in verbal communication but Sam still had Dean teaching him how to speak ASL so he was slowly improving.

That date ended with Sam (cough Dean cough) and Eileen enjoying a simple parmesan chicken and rice dinner in his apartment.

Despite having been on a wonderful date already, Sam was still surprised when she asked him on their second date. She claimed that it was only fair if she took him on the second.

It was now the next Saturday and Sam was waiting at his house for Eileen to pick him up. She refused to tell him where they were going no matter how many times he asked her over text.

At exactly 10:30, like she had said, Eileen pulled up to Sam’s building in her red 1971 Plymouth Valiant, Sam only knew what car it was exactly because he was required to report it back to his brother.

Sam got in the car after she yelled at him for standing still for too long.

The drive was going to be just over an hour and if Sam hadn’t already known her for so long he might have actually been worried that she was going to leave his body out in the middle of nowhere. But he did know her, she could definitely do that, but she wouldn’t unless Sam gave her a very good reason to.

The car was silent for most of the hour long trip because signing and driving, or Eileen reading his lips while driving, was very dangerous. But the silence between when she would let him know little tiny details that he couldn’t piece together about their destination and the few stops they made for lights and traffic, Sam felt at peace.

Dean explained to him once, the importance of comfortable silence; where you could just exist beside someone else and just be. Sam had never understood that until now.

Sam hadn’t really been paying much attention to the road signs as they drove, more just watching the terrain as it flew by, so he was caught off guard when they passed a ‘Welcome To Atchison, Kansas’ sign.

The town was just over an hour away from Lawrence, it was smaller as well which left Sam wondering what they were doing there that they couldn’t in Lawrence.

A few minutes of confusion later Eileen pulled the car into a small parking lot beside an old gothic style house.

“The Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum?” Sam stared at her in shock as she beamed at him.

For a brief moment Sam wondered who told her he wanted to go hear, then he realized that there was a good chance Eileen went to one of his family members to _ask_ where Sam would like to go on a date.

Eileen was still smiling as she pointed her two index fingers up and then pointing them to the house. With raised eyebrows she spoke aloud, “Go?”

Sam nodded back enthusiastically, unable to do the corresponding ‘yes’ sign as he unclipped his seatbelt and practically jumped out of the car.

By the time he rounded the car Eileen had stepped out of it as well. She made a face at him and laughed at his giddy attitude. The sound was music to Sam’s ears as he watched the amazing woman step closer to him.

She was standing right in front of Sam now, they were both smiling like maniacs. After a few moments of just staring at one another, Sam placed a hand on her jaw.

Her eyes widened as she pushed up onto her toes.

Sam leaned down some.

He felt her lips on his and he internally vowed that he’d be her’s for as long as she’d have him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Van'ty, for Beta-ing and you requested a straight fic so here you go.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed, comments and kudos are always appreciated.


End file.
